INTRODUCTION: Earlier fieldwork established that a major motivating factor in the abnormally high incidence of outmigration from S.E. Ambrym was a fear of death by sorcery. A 1973 evangelical campaign claimed complete success in eliminating sorcery from S.E. Ambrym, and euphoric islanders began urging their expatriate relatives to return to their now safe homeland. OBJECTIVES: (a) to ascertain the current status of beliefs in the existence and practice of sorcery in S. E. Ambrym; (b) using data gathered in 1966-7, 1969 and 1973 as baselines, to measure migration rates and changes in the percentage of S.E. Ambrymese absentees from Ambrym to assess the effects of the 1973 campaign on migration and absentee rates; (c) to assess possible changes in perceptions of the homeland held by S.E. Amrymese, and in individual definitions of well-being. METHODS: Standard ethnographic techniques of data collection, including participant observation, loosely structured interviews, case studies and personal histories, censuses, examination of relevant documents, photography and taperecording where possible and appropriate.